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IBM boosts flash storage for enterprise cloud, analytics

By GCN Staff

Jan 27, 2014

Government agencies are rapidly moving critical workloads like enterprise resource planning, analytics and database to the cloud for increased efficiency and lower costs. For memory-intensive applications, IBM has introduced an all-flash array, the FlashSystem 840. The new system provides nearly double the bandwidth and performance – 1.1M IOPS – of its predecessor, the FlashSystem 820 – making it suited for analytical databases, virtualization and public and private clouds, the company said in its announcement.

According to IBM, the FlashSystem 840 can support up to 48 terabytes of usable capacity in a 2U rack. It provides capacity and performance for enterprise applications, including OLTP and OLAP databases, virtual desktop infrastructures, technical-computing applications and cloud environments.

The system uses two-dimensional flash RAID technology that helps reduce downtime by maintaining performance and capacity in the event of partial or full-flash chip failures. All active components are redundant, hot-swappable and accessible via a tool-less modular design—enabling IT staff to spend more time working on strategic initiatives, rather than resolving system failures, IBM said.

The FlashSystem 840 is part of IBM’s new solutions for its X6 architecture for analytics, database and cloud deployment. The X6 is part IBM's line of x86-based systems, and is designed to provide better performance and resiliency for enterprise applications. For memory-hungry applications, IBM said, X6 delivers three times the scalable memory of current competitors' and IBM x86-based systems to support cloud and analytics.